Finding Aid to the Papers of President Paul F. Douglass
processed by Eileen M. Griffin, August 1990

Biographical Note
Scope and Content Note
Provenance
Box and Folder Listing

VOLUME: 6.5 linear feet

Forms Part of Record Group No. 3, Records of the Office of the President

ACCESS: This collection is open to the public upon request.

COPYRIGHT: Please consult the archivist for information about duplication or publishing of any materials from this collection.

Biographical Note

Paul Frederick Douglass was born in Corinth, New York on November 7, 1904. He received his A.B. at Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in 1931 from the University of Cincinnati as a Taft fellow in government and public law. He attended the University of Berlin for two years as a fellow in economics and jurisprudence; He was also admitted to the Vermont Bar in the late 1930s.

In addition to being known as a lawyer, Douglass was also an author, newspaperman, Methodist minister, and a member of the Vermont state senate. He held a position as reporter and educational editor for the Cincinnati Post from 1926 to 1928 and later worked as a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. In 1933, he was ordained and served as a pastor of the Methodist Church in Poultney, Vermont until 1941. When serving in the Vermont State Legislature from 1933-1943, he served as Chairman of the House Committee on Education.

Douglass was nominated to be president of the American University by a special committee of the Board of Trustees. He was 37 years old. In his first month at the University, he seems to have impressed the students when he interviewed all the seniors, administered the graduate record examination, revitalized the school’s chapel programs, and preached to the students during Sunday services.

Douglass led AU through the turbulent war years. He was very active in the movement to establish the United Nations and worked diligently on refugee relief programs and international organizations. Hew as the first president to help foster integration at AU and he also initiated courses for disabled veterans of the war.

In 1951, Douglass decided against re-election to the presidency, and decided to spend more time writing. He became an advisor to the South Korean President Syngman Rhee from 1952 to 1955. From 1971 to 1978 he acted as General Counsel to the postmaster’s league in Washington.

Douglass never married and died at the age of 83 in Rutland, Vermont after a long illness. He authored more than a dozen books ranging in subject from recreation to estate planning, industrial parks, education, and city planning.

Scope and Content Note

The collection focused on Douglass’ term at the university. There are a wide number of topics, from foreign students to veterans’ benefits to Russia.

Provenance

The Collection was given to the Archives when it was discovered in the attic of the McKinley Building. It seems that most of it was saved in its current form after being rearranged in April of 1962. However, much of it seems to have been destroyed.

Box & Folder Listing

Box 1

• List of transferred, discarded files
• Academy of Time Fellowship: Gordon Cowan Manuscript, 1948
• Accreditation - American Chemical Society
• Administration: Groups and their Administration. Preliminary draft of outline.
  • An orientation for technical courses in Administration - Faculty Seminar. L.C. Marshall, 1938
• Alumni contributions and gifts, 1926-1949
• North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Faculty Records, A - M, 1950-1951
• North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Faculty Records, N - Z, 1950-1951
• Audio visual aids, 1945-1948
• Basketball accounts and schedules, 1945-1947
• Administrative Committee of the Board of Trustees, 1941-1943
• Budget, 1951-1952
• Budget Data, 1951-1952
• Budget Data, 1952-1953

Box 2

• Campus Plans and orientation literature
• Citizens Policy Conference, 1951
• Clippings (mostly relating to problems of returning and disabled veterans)
• Cohen, Benjamin. Luncheon for Assistant Secretary of the United Nations, Sept. 24, 1947
• College Program. Colloquiums and Seminars, 1949-1950
• Committee of Three, 1951. Committee on the proposed protestant-sponsored school of international service. Harold Davis. Dec, 19, 1951.
• Department of Communication. Annual Report, 1950 (AC6309.1)
• Miscellaneous Correspondence, President Douglass, 1949-1952; 1961.
• Correspondence, General, 1935-1941
• Correspondence, General, 1935-1941
• C.C. McCabe Lecture by Kenneth DeCourcy, 1950
• AU and its Educational Service; Memo from Pres. Douglass, Feb 7, 1944.
• Enrollment - Registration, 1946-1952
• Faculty Appointments - Salaries
• Faculty Questionnaire to the faculty, 1950
• Committee on faculty and curriculum college - CAS, 1948
• Faculty meetings and committees, 1946-1949

Box 3

• Douglass, Paul
• Douglass, Paul. copies
• Financial Statements and records, AU, 1930, 1948, 1951
• Fire Damage. Repair work at recreational Building, 1949
• Foreign students, 1955
• President Harding - Death. Pittsburgh Post Aug. 3, 1923
• Health and Physical Education, 1947-1949
• Institutes, Federal Taxes, 1945-1951
• Institutes. AU Teaching Institute of Economics, 1948-1949
• Insurance. Lumberman's Mutual Casualty, 1939-1942
• Investments. Loomis, Sayles & Co. Feb 1949 - June 1951
• Lectures and Courses, etc. 1937-1943
• Lectures before the diplomatic corps, 1937
• Legal counsel: Colladay, Colladay & Wallace. 1929-1949
• Leonard, Adna Wright, Jr. 1943-1945
• Legendre, Leonce R. Correspondence. Boy's Nation Program, 1943
• Littauer, Lucius N. Fellowship, 1940-1941
• Lobingier, Charles S. The Lobingier Foundation, 1939-1949
• Long Scholarship. Long and Eaton Correspondence, 1928-1931

Box 4

• Macomb Street property, 1929-1949
• The Maret School and AU, 1947-1951
• Ice Marketing Institute. Milk Ind. Foundation, 1949
• Medical Technology and Nursing, 1942-1948
• Methodist Church Relationships, 1947-1950
• Methodist Youth Fellowship, 1941-1943
• Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Church. Pledges with signatures of US Grant and Salmon P. Chase (printed). May 1871.
• Met. Mem. Church. Papers and correspondence re: relocating church on AU campus, 1929-1945.
• Methodist Church: statement by AU to the Methodist conference, 1952
• Mexican Claim. Estate of John W. DeKay, 1943
• Mexico: Students, Hall of nations, Ambassador Daniels, 1936-1942
• Military programs and AU contract, 1948-1951
• Military program, AU. AU war Bulletins (Korean War), 1950-1951
• Minister's Seminar: Direction our society is moving, April 1944

Box 5

• Ministers seminar. Copies of speeches and materials 1944
• Ministers seminar, April 3-5, 1945
• Ministers seminar, April 23-25, 1946
• Ministers seminar. Syllabi and materials, April 23-25, 1946
• Ministers seminar. Graduate seminar. 1947, 1948, 1949
• Ministers courses of study at AU, 1945
• Ministers institute. Graduate seminar. April 1950
• Ministers institute. Pittsburgh Area, Oct. 1950
• Ministers institute. Richmond, VA, 1950
• Ministers institute. Graduate Seminar. April 10-12, 1951
• Ministers institute, Illinois, 1949-1952

Box 6

• Miscellaneous Memoranda by Pres. Douglass
• Nasht, John. Hochschild Scholarship, 1944-1947
• National Institute of Public Affairs, Correspondence, 1937-1945
• National Institute of Public Affairs, 1936-1945
• National Service Officers. Memoranda and Syllabus. Standing committee on English Program, 1946
• National Youth Administration, 1938-1942
• Navy Department. Correspondence, contracts, bulletins, lease equipment, 1943-1950
• Navy Bomb School. Contracts, Claims for taxes suit, 1943-1946
• Negro Students, 1944-1949
• Observatory, AU. correspondence re: possibility of mounting a telescope on the campus, 1946
• Office of education, Federal Security Agency, 1942-1950
• Olsen, George W. correspondence, 1945-1946
• The optimist international. AU meeting, June 1946
• Order of Patron Forms, AU
• Parkhill Construction company. Alterations to AU buildings and Repairs. 1945-1947 The Quonset Huts.
• Patent Office survey. Research Program at AU, 1948
• Parker, Judge Edwin. Will, 1929.

Box 7

• Pension Plan. TIAA, 1947
• Pension records, 1947
• Peyser, Julius I. 1942-1950
• Police, 1948
• Posner, Stanley. Correspondence. 5th Institute on the US in World Affairs, 1949-1950
• Presidential System--Research and writing, 1946. Letter to William D. Hasset, Sec. to FDR.
• Protestants and other Americans United for separation of church and state, 1951
• Public Administration Dept. (SSSPA) courses and Bibliography, 1946, 1948
• Public Administration clearing house; civil service assembly of the US and Canada, 1935-1944
• Public Opinion clearing house, 1935-1946
• Publications board, AU organization, etc.
• Questionnaires, 1939-1941
• Rankin, W. A. Correspondence relating to his will, 1917
• Reading program, 1948-1951
• Recreation, 1950
• Report: Director of Research, 1918
• Rhee, Syngman. Copy of letter to Mrs. Parmly, 1942

Box 8

• Rhode Scholar Program, AU, 1949-1950
• Robinson, James Frank. Will and estate, 1930-1940
• Robson, Matthew, 1928-1929
• Rockefeller Foundation, 1935-1983
• Rockefeller Foundation, 1934-1939
• The Rockefeller Foundation and the establishment of Public Affairs at AU
• Rondezvous Room, AU; 1945-1946
• Roper chimes, 1941-1950
• Rosenwald, Julius. Fund, 1938-1944
• ROTC, 1946-1951
• Russell Sage Foundation, 1937-1938
• Russia, 1943-1946
• National capital sesquicentennial. AU's participation, 1950

Box 9

• Sedgewick, Anne Douglas. A portrait in letter
• School of Public Affairs. Statement: AU today and tomorrow
• Summer Institute, 1935
• Publications: SPA, 1936-1937
• SSSPA, History, Feb. 1948
• SSSPA, Standing Committee Memoranda, 1947-1949
• SSSPA, Standing Committee, 1946-1947
• SSSPA Objectives, 1937-1942 (AC6309.1)
• SSSPA: Committee on Faculty and Curriculum School, 1948
• SSSPA, Undergraduate Counseling Manual, 1949
• Social Activities. Report of the Advisors of Extra Curricula Activities, Fraternities, 1941-1942
• Bureau of Social Science Research, 1951
• Social Science Research Council, 1936-1947
• Social Science Research. Bureau, 1950-1951
• College Council: Student Affairs and Activities, 1948-1950
• International Students Day, 1943-1945

Box 10

• Stocks; President Douglass records, 1949
• Student Guidance, Committee of. 1939
• Student loan fund of Methodist Church, 1927, 1942-1944
• Summer Sessions, 1931-1951
• Surplus war property, 1944-1948
• Thesis on William and Mary library in 17th and 18th c. J.M. Jennings, 1947
• University officers and administrative council minutes, 1947-1953
• University Organization, CAS - Divisional Academic Program, 1947-1948
• University Organization, Graduate Division
• University Organization, Undergraduate Division, 1940-1949

Box 11

• University Senate: Methodist Church, 1940-1947
• University Statistics On Questionnaires, 1923-1941
• University Statistics, Admissions, rules, degrees, Miscellany, 1938-1940
• University Statistics, admissions, rules, degrees, 1937-1940
• Veterans dwelling units: temporary housing provided by public housing authority, 1946-1947
• Veterans program, 1947-1949
• Office of war information. Broadcasts, 1943-1946
• War council, 1950-1951

Box 12

• War council, 1950-1951
• War programs. Letters from servicemen, 1950
• The united nations war relief, 1943-1945
• The Community War Fund, 1943-1946

Box 13

• Ward Circle campus. correspondence, 1946-1949
• World War II honor roll, AU
• Wesley Junior College, 1941-1945, 1962
• World Federation of educational associations in cooperation with AU institute on world problems, July 12 - August 15, 1942
• Washington Federation of churches. Visual education workshop, AU campus, 1945-1948
• The world through Washington. Fortnightly news letter, AU. April 1944 - July 1946 (AC6309.1)